


Breathe

by hondansadeensommar



Series: Multifandom Hurt/Comfort Oneshots [13]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Asthma, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nosebleed, Sick Character, Sickfic, Stray Kids are bad at self care, legit like half the guys are sick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 16:39:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19705303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hondansadeensommar/pseuds/hondansadeensommar
Summary: "Hyung?  Are you okay?"





	Breathe

**Author's Note:**

> So this one requires a formatting note - if it's in bold, the character is speaking English rather than Korean. As always, italics are Romanized Korean.

Felix’s chest felt tight as the group made their way off the stage, smiling and bowing at the production crew as they thanked them for a job well done.The performance had gone well; Special Stages were always a bit stressful, and Felix was relieved to be done with the performance so that they could go back to focusing on their own music again.

“ **Lix… you okay?** ”It took Felix a second to register the English question, turning to look at Bang Chan.The older man looked concerned, moving closer to Felix and putting an arm around his waist.“ **You’re wheezing… I heard it on the monitors at the end of the song…** ”

Felix nodded, coughing as he tried to take too deep of a breath given his current condition.Despite the fact that he was definitely having an asthma attack, Felix wasn’t all that concerned; he’d been expecting as much, given how bad the air quality was and the tightness in his chest that hadn’t gone away since he’d woken up that morning.While he’d used his inhaler before their rehearsal - something Felix had hidden from his members, because he hadn’t wanted anyone to fuss over him when they were all stressing out over their performance - it hadn’t completely gotten rid of his symptoms.But they had improved, so he’d chosen to ignore them rather than make a big deal out of it.

“ **Asthma attack?** ” Chan asked, as the coughing finally subsided.Felix nodded, leaning against the wall and pulling off his headset mic.His monitors had been pulled to hang around his neck before they’d even left the stage, but Felix felt the need to get everything away from his head and neck as he tried to get oxygen into his system.“ _Yah_ … **get on my back, okay?Let’s get you back to the dressing room.** ”

Felix wasn’t a fan of the idea of having to be carried, but he was at least thankful that his leader wasn’t otherwise trying to make a big deal about what was going on.As many times as Felix had suffered from asthma attacks in his life, he knew what to worry about - if he stopped wheezing, or if he started to feel panicked.Felix and the group’s managers always travelled with the necessary supplies to monitor his condition, and there were multiple inhalers spread across the members’s bags just in case something happened and Felix was unable to get the one from his own bag. 

“Is everything okay?” Woojin asked, as Chan carried Felix into the group’s dressing room and sat him down on a chair.

“Asthma attack… can you grab one of his inhalers, and maybe the spacer that’s in his bag?” Chan asked, taking a seat on the table directly in front of him.

“ **It’s okay… I’m okay…** ” Felix reassured, reverting back to English even as he wheezed between the words.Felix’s Korean still wasn’t the best; although he could usually understand even in the midst of an attack, Felix didn’t do as well with actually trying to speak the language while he was struggling to breathe.He was just thankful that so many of his members were either fluent in English or spoke enough of the language that they could understand Felix when he wasn’t quite capable of speaking Korean.“ **I don’t need the spacer.** ”

“You should use it… it’s easier, and your wheezing keeps getting louder,” Chan replied, as one of their managers brought over a pulse oximeter to clip onto Felix’s finger so that they could keep an eye on his symptoms and make sure he didn’t need to be taken to the hospital. 

Woojin was back with the necessary devices a moment later, putting them together quickly before passing the whole setup off to Felix.Felix breathed out, placing the device in his mouth and administering the first half of his usual dose as he breathed in through the plastic chamber.After a few breaths, Felix pressed the button on his actual inhaler again, repeating the process before he passed the device back to Woojin.“Thanks, _hyung_ …”

“Take it easy, okay, Lix?Do you need anything?” Woojin asked, squeezing his shoulder gently. 

“Could you bring me a water bottle, please?”Felix felt a little guilty asking the others to do things for him - after all, they were all tired from the demands of preparing for a special stage - but he really wasn’t in a good position to do much for himself.

“I’ve got it!” Changbin replied, hurrying over with a bottle from his bag and handing it to Felix.

“Thanks, _hyung_ ,” Felix replied, opening the bottle and taking a couple of small sips from the bottle.Felix could feel that the medication was working, and he found himself relaxing into the chair and letting his head lean back so that he could close his eyes and try to get some rest.

“ _Hyung_ … it’s time to wake up.”Jeongin’s voice broke through the haze of sleep, as the teenager gently shook his shoulder.“We’re getting ready to leave, and Chan- _hyung_ told me to make sure you didn’t need your inhaler again…”

Felix sat up slowly, shaking his head as he coughed a couple of times.“I’m okay, Innie… what about the finale?”

“We’re skipping it… Woojin- _hyung_ started running a fever while you were asleep, and Changbin- _hyung_ isn’t feeling great, either.Chan- _hyung_ and the managers decided it would be better if we all went home,” Jeongin replied.

“Seems like your whole room is feeling kind of under the weather,” Jisung added, coming over with Felix’s bag.“If you don’t already have whatever the _hyungs_ have, you can come bunk with us tonight.The last thing you need is to get sick, right now.”

“Thanks, Han- _ah_ ,” Felix replied, letting the older man help him out of his seat

“Right… let’s catch up with the rest of the guys, yeah?You can sleep some more on the drive home,” Jisung suggested.Felix nodded, smiling and letting Jisung and Jeongin guide him out of the room.

***

Felix shot up in bed, gasping for breath as he frantically looked around him for his inhaler.His chest was on fire, and although he could still breathe to some degree Felix knew that he likely wouldn’t be able to get it under control on his own this time.

The light flipped on as Felix finally managed to find his inhaler, shaking the device quickly as Jeongin blinked a few times to wake himself up before climbing down from his top bunk to join Felix on his mattress in the floor.Hyunjin and Chan had moved his stuff over as soon as the group had gotten home, so that Felix wouldn’t risk catching whatever illness was going around his usual bedroom.“ _Hyung_?” the younger boy asked.“Are you okay?”

“No,” Felix replied, fumbling with his inhaler as he tried to connect it to the spacer again.Jeongin was quick to grab the two pieces from him and put them together properly, handing it back so that Felix could use it.The younger boy sat next to Felix as he took the medication, rubbing his back and doing his best to let Felix know that he was there without distracting him from the task at hand.

“Why is the light on…?” Jisung grumbled, as Felix dropped the device back on the bed next to him.

“Felix- _hyung_ is having another asthma attack, _hyung_ ,” Jeongin replied, squeezing Felix’s shoulder.“Should we get Chan- _hyung_?”

“What do you think, Lix?” Jisung asked.

“No.”Felix shook his head slowly, knowing that Chan likely hadn’t gone to bed until much later than everyone else; their leader was usually overworking himself, and with two sick members Felix knew that Chan had likely stayed up even later than normal.Woojin had still been running a fever when they had started going to bed, and Changbin had developed a full-blown migraine shortly after arriving back at the dorms, followed by his own fever a few hours later.The last thing their leader needed was a third member keeping him awake all night.

“Okay… we’ll give the medicine time to work,” Jisung replied, moving over to sit on Felix’s other side to help support him as they waited to see how much the medicine would actually help.Felix let his head rest on Jeongin’s shoulder, closing his eyes and trying to focus on getting oxygen into his lungs.Although he could feel it getting easier to breathe, Felix still wasn’t happy with the way his lungs felt and how much he was wheezing.With his breathing finally getting a bit easier, Felix was finally able to recognize that his whole body was aching and he felt himself shivering despite the fact that his tee shirt seemed to be soaked in sweat.

“ _Hyung_ … does Felix- _hyung_ feel warm to you?” Jeongin asked after a moment.

Felix felt a hand resting against his forehead.“ _Aish_ … so much for separating him from the sick members to keep him healthy,” Jisung replied with a sigh.

“What do we do?” Jeongin asked softly.

“Go steal the thermometer from Woojin- _hyung_ ’s room,” Jisung commented.“We’ll check his temperature first… then we’ll decide what we need to do next.”

Felix shifted to let himself lean against Jisung instead, as the _maknae_ hurried off to do as he’d been told.“Can you talk to me, _aegi_?How are you doing?” Jisung asked softly.

“It’s hard,” Felix wheezed.“I don’t want to go to the hospital…”

“Good luck with that… if you don’t stop wheezing, we won’t have a choice,” Jisung replied, stroking a hand through his hair. 

“ _Aish_ … how long has it been since he used his inhaler?” Chan’s voice asked.Felix opened his eyes, surprised to see the leader hurrying into the room with Jeongin close behind him.

“Less than five minutes… he actually sounds better,” Jisung replied, as Chan pressed a hand against Felix’s forehead.“We were going to let you sleep until we were sure he had to go to the hospital…”

“I’d just gotten up to check on Woojin- _ah_ and Binnie when Jeongin- _ah_ came in there,” Chan replied, sitting down next to Felix and putting the thermometer in his ear.“I don’t like that his wheezing is louder right now than it was earlier today… I don’t think you’re going to get out of a hospital trip on this one, Lix.”Felix closed his eyes as the thermometer beeped, knowing that their leader was probably right about needing to go to the emergency room to get his asthma back under control.

“ _Aish_ … _hyung_ , that’s bad…” Jeongin commented.

Chan sighed.“Go sleep in my bed, Innie… you have school in the morning, and Jisung- _ah_ and I can handle this,” the leader replied, standing up to leave the room.“I’m going to get a fever patch from the other room, and then I’ll call a manager to come take him to the hospital.”

“ _Hyung_ …” Felix whined.

“Not up for debate, Lix… you usually don’t have two asthma attacks in a week, let alone two in under twenty-four hours,” Chan replied, shaking his head.“The fact that you’re running a fever, too, is just more reason that you should go to the hospital for breathing treatments before this gets any worse.”

“What about Woojin- _hyung_ and Binnie- _hyung_?Shouldn’t we send them to the hospital, too, so that they can get checked out?” Jisung asked.

“They’re sleeping right now… I know they need to go at some point, but I don’t want to wake them up if I don’t have to,” Chan replied, shaking his head and sighing.“Right now, I’m just going to worry about Lix.He’s running the highest fever, and he’s still wheezing.Speaking of which… Lix, you need to use your inhaler again while I’m making the call.I know it probably won’t stop the attack completely, but it might at least make you a little more comfortable until you can see the doctor…”

Felix nodded, grabbing the inhaler and spacer from where he’d dropped it on the bed as Chan left the room.While Felix didn’t like taking multiple doses of albuterol so close together - the medication made his heart race and made him feel anxious and unsettled long before he even got close to an actual overdose - he knew that the attack wasn’t ending and he would have to do something in order to even make it to the hospital. 

Felix could feel his hands already starting to shake as he put down the inhaler after he’d used it again, closing his eyes and leaning back against Jisung’s chest.“Can you tell me what’s going on, Lix?” Jisung asked, after giving Felix a few moments for the medication to work.

“Meds make me feel weird,” Felix replied.Despite the fact that the medication was making him feel worse otherwise, the second round certainly made his breathing easier.“Feel like shit…”

“I know, _aegi_ … but you’ll feel better in a few hours, once Chan- _hyung_ gets a manager to take you to the hospital,” Jisung reassured.“At least we don’t have schedules tomorrow to worry about…”

“We don’t…?” Felix asked, confused.He’d spent a good chunk of the evening zoning in and out thanks to the after-effects of his earlier asthma attack, and it was clear that Felix had missed something.

“JYP- _hyung_ pulled us from tomorrow’s performances, because Woojin- _hyung_ and Changbin- _hyung_ are sick and we weren’t sure if you would be up to performing.That’s why Innie has to go to school in the morning,” Jisung replied.“Now that it’s official that you’re sick, too, I have a feeling we’re going to be ending promotions early.Chances are that if the three of you are all sick with the same thing, it’s only a matter of time before we all have it…”

“Right… one of the managers is on his way,” Chan commented, as he came back into the room with the box of fever patches and sat down next to them.“How’s he doing?”

“He’s feeling pretty awful,” Jisung replied.“He said something about the medication making him feel weird…”

“Yeah, it does that,” Chan replied, as he opened one of the patches to put it on Felix’s forehead.“It doesn’t help that he’s really sensitive to albuterol, too… he can’t have more than two doses.Even two can be pushing it at times, depending on what’s going on.I’m going to go grab the pulse oximeter so that we can keep an eye on his heart rate and make sure he’s getting enough oxygen.”

***

“It’s time to wake up, Lix…”Felix groaned, rolling onto his back and forcing his eyes open at Minho’s words.“Chan- _hyung_ sent me to make you do your nebulizer again.”

“Too tired…” Felix replied, closing his eyes and trying to roll over again.

“ _Yah_ … you aren’t getting away with that,” Minho replied, physically stopping Felix from turning away from him.“Your lungs suck at breathing right now, and that’s kind of a problem since breathing is necessary for life.So this isn’t negotiable.”

Felix groaned as Minho physically moved him into a seated position, before the older man sat down behind him and hauled Felix into his lap so that he could support Felix’s weight.Although Felix knew that his _hyung_ was just doing what was best for him, he really didn’t have the energy to sit up and do anything on his own.Felix’s four AM trip to the hospital had taken much longer than Woojin and Changbin’s trip several hours later, to the point that his roommates had already been back in the dorms and resting before Felix had even been released from the hospital. 

“ _Yah_ … don’t be a brat, Lix,” Changbin groaned, from his own bunk.Given the fact that all three of them had been diagnosed as having the same upper respiratory infection, Felix’s mattress had been moved back to his usual room in an attempt at trying to minimize the spread of their illness to the rest of the group.They all knew that any efforts to avoid spreading it were likely futile, but the last thing they needed was for the whole group to be down at the exact same time.

Minho had everything set up for the breathing treatment fairly quickly, helping Felix strap the mask onto his face so that he wouldn’t have to hold it.“Ten minutes, okay?Then you can lay down and go back to sleep until time for dinner,” Minho commented.Felix did his best to relax, letting his eyes close as Minho stroked his hair while the medication worked.

“How is he?” Chan’s voice asked from the doorway, slightly muffled.Felix opened his eyes, feeling somewhat guilty as he realized that Chan had tissues shoved up his nose - a clear indication that the leader had gotten a nosebleed from all of the stress of having three sick members.

“Lix is fine, _hyung_ ,” Minho replied.“Go worry about yourself, yeah?I can take care of the sick members, and Hyunjin- _ah_ and Jisung- _ah_ are dealing with dinner.And Seungmin- _ah_ is helping Innie with his homework.We’ve got it all under control.”

“I’m the leader…” Chan began.

“ _Yah_ … go sit your ass down before you end up sick, too, Channie…” Woojin replied, throwing an extra pillow from his bed towards the door.“We don’t need a sick leader, too.And I don’t have the energy to clean up your blood…”

Chan sighed, nodding.“Come get me if you need me, Minho- _yah_ …”

“Not happening, _hyung_.You need a nap… you only got a couple of hours of sleep last night.Unless one of these guys needs an ambulance, the rest of us are going to handle it ourselves,” Minho replied. 

“Go nap, _hyung_ ,” Felix added, through the mask

“See?Even Lix wants you to sleep,” Minho commented, stroking a hand through Felix’s hair again.“And actually sleep, _hyung_.Don’t go in your room and get on your computer… I’m going to come check when I’m done here.”

Felix didn’t realize that he’d started to fall asleep again, until he felt Minho removing his mask after shutting off the machine.“Sleep, _aegi_ … I’ll wake you up when it’s time to eat.”Felix just nodded slowly, curling into the man’s warmth.“Just sleep.”


End file.
